Montfort (Mon4T)’s real-time brain monitor leverages smartphone technology to conduct, record and analyze data from a set of digital tests from patients with conditions like Parkinson’s disease and normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH).

Henry Ford Innovations, established in 2011 to support the health system’s technologies, issued the challenge last fall as part of a program in Israel designed to bring Israeli technologies to the US healthcare market. Montfort was chosen winner out of a pool of 50 applicants.

With more than one billion people suffering from neurological diseases worldwide and several thousand patients per neurologist, Montfort’s solution developed out of a need for more personal care and feedback.

“If we can come to depend on machine learning solutions to ease the burden involved with a lot of these routine tests and diagnostics, then that leaves more time for patient care,” said Mark Coticchia, Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer for Henry Ford Health System.

Montfort’s “master app,” available for both iOS and Android, is installed on the patient’s smartphone and links to all of the device’s integral sensors including touchscreen, microphone, and accelerometers. Indicators are provided in three dimensions: motor, cognitive and affective.

The app comes in two versions: a medical app to be used by the physician at the clinic, and a home version for patients to use in their natural environment.

Dr. Peter LeWitt, Director of the Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorders Program at Henry Ford Hospital, said these applications have a lot of promise for research and improved clinical care.

“Machine learning applications offering such detailed and unbiased analysis have the potential to guide understanding of movement disorders that even a trained clinician might miss – and that could greatly advance our capabilities for both diagnosis and treatment.”

As the winner of the AI Challenge, Montfort will receive funding up to $75,000 to sponsor research and clinical development of its technology at Henry Ford, headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. They will also maintain access to Henry Ford mentors and experts as development continues.